Baroness Barran: I had not forgotten, so I absolutely undertake to write on the noble Baroness’s specific questions in relation to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and on the other points that she raised.
In response to the disruptions to education during the pandemic, a further £222 million has been provided to continue the 16 to 19 tuition fund for an additional two years from the 2022-23 academic year. It allows students to access one-to-one and small group catch-up tuition in subjects that will benefit them most, including maths, English and vocational courses.
Amendment 26 from the noble Lord, Lord Addington, is in essence consistent with our approach set out in the draft statutory guidance published alongside the Bill. However, enshrining the minimum frequency for reviews as three years in legislation would remove important and necessary flexibility for colleges. The needs of learners with special educational needs and disabilities are, as my predecessor set out in an earlier  debate, already protected in legislation through the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Equality Act 2010. Further education providers must use their best endeavours to secure the special educational provision called for by a student’s special educational needs, and make reasonable adjustments to prevent such standards being placed at a substantial disadvantage.
Before closing, I would like to try to respond to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, about new apprentices. He referred to the end of September data; we should be pretty pleased that we have data to 10 August, which I hope he agrees is timely, but we can of course write once we have more up-to-date figures. The latest figures show that over 101,000 apprentices have been supported through the apprenticeships incentive scheme, of whom 76% are aged between 16 and 24. As he is aware, the Chancellor has recently announced that the incentive scheme has been extended and will be available for employers who hire new apprentices by 31 January 2022.
I hope that my remarks have provided your Lordships with some reassurance on the important issues about how local skills improvement plans will work in practice, how different key stakeholders will be involved in their delivery and how the delivery of our local and national plans will be linked. I therefore ask my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe if she would be able to withdraw her amendment, and other noble Lords not to move theirs.